BALLERINI, PAOLO. — Archbishop of Milan, born in Milan on 13 January 1814, died at Seregno in 1897. He studied in Vienna, where he obtained a degree in theology. Returning to his native city, he taught theology at the Major Seminary and became a canon of the Metropolitan Church and vicar general of Archbishop Romilli, who found in him a faithful and scrupulous collaborator during the final years of his life. After Romilli’s death, Franz Joseph proposed B. for the titular archiepiscopal see of Milan, but, taking the particular political circumstances into account, B. tendered his resignation to the emperor. Nevertheless, in the Consistory of 20 June 1859, Pius IX preconized B. as archbishop of Milan. In 1860, jurisdiction over the diocese was conferred upon him by a special brief, and on the night of 8 December B. was consecrated at the Carthusian monastery of Pavia by Msgr. Caccia, capitular vicar.
A tenacious opponent of the new civil authorities, who claimed the right to intervene in the appointment of ecclesiastical offices, B. was unable to take formal possession of the diocese, while the activity carried out by the vicar in defence of the rights of the Church was attributed to him by the anticlericals, as being «the consequence of the machinations of the reactionary party led by the pseudo-archbishop B.». In the Secret Consistory of 27 March 1867, Pius IX promoted B. to the titular patriarchal see of Alexandria in Egypt, while Msgr. Luigi Nazari di Calabiana was appointed archbishop of Milan. B. lived in retirement, devoted to study; he published a new edition of the works of St. Ambrose (Milan 1875–83) in 6 vols.